One of the rakugo stories that I’ve always wanted to listen to is called “The Ghost of Ōkyo” (応挙の幽霊).
In this story, an antique art dealer came across a picture scroll by Maruyama Ōkyo (1733-1795), a famous realist painter from the Edo period (1603-1867), and sold it to one of his clients for 10 Ryo.
The client left 1 Ryo for the bond and went home to pay the remaining amount the following morning.
That night a beautiful ghost came out of the scroll, and she thanked the dealer for offering her sake and chanting a Buddhist sutra for her.
They enjoyed sake together, and the ghost even sang some dodoitsu poetry for him.
The morning arrived, but the ghost was still asleep, being exhausted from the previous night.
The client wondered why the scroll wasn’t delivered and asked the dealer.
The dealer answered, “I’d like to let her sleep a bit longer, sir.”
Now…
This is one of those stories that I probably wouldn’t perform myself as a lot could get lost in translation.
But what really fascinates me is that it is said Ōkyo invented the legless Japanese ghosts.
As you may know, it is traditionally believed in Japan that ghosts do not have legs.
That is why ghost characters in Japanese manga and anime are usually legless.
It is a widely accepted theory that Ōkyo was the one who was responsible for inventing the convention of legless ghosts.
If this is true, it is relatively a modern invention that is less than 300 years old.
On the left is The Ghost of Oyuki by Ōkyo.
Picture Attributions
The Ghost of Oyuki: Maruyama Ōkyo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Yuurei: Brigham Young University, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
English Rakugo NZ 